Learning to Fly – Part 1

On April 13th of this year, I was finally able to take my first flight lesson. A gift from my dad, it was about and hour behind the controls of a Cherokee 140 out of the airport in Bolivar, MO (M17). It included a quick pre-flight walkaround, then a flight over to Stockton, MO for some basic maneuvers and back to Bolivar.

It was an experience I’ll never forget…

I’ve been flying using a home simulator setup for about the last year or more so much of the flight was familiar but the real life sensations weren’t. I was on sensory overload most of the flight but was able to fly the plane using the habits already in place from the time on the simulator. My instructor told my dad that “he’s a natural” and my dad was impressed that the landing was good remarking “if you’d greased it on the first flight I would have been shocked”.

It cemented the idea in my mind that I could indeed become a pilot. About a month later it was my birthday, and everyone chipped in to open a savings account in my name for flight lessons, filled with enough cash to get three lessons booked.